President Jimmy Carter’s funeral is today, and to commemorate his presidency, host Allen Ruff is joined by Stephen Zunes to take stock of what is remembered and misremembered about President Carter. They take on the challenge of critically assessing the legacy of a former president as most media tend to overlook the low points of Carter’s time in office.
They discuss how Carter inherited the presidency at the height of US imperialism with limited foreign-policy experience, propping up dictatorships, including his role in East Timor, Morocco, and Turkey. Ruff and Zunes then appraise how Carter used his influence after he left office to contribute positively to what Zunes calls a “moral foreign policy” by speaking out against human rights violations. 
There’s plenty to cover about Carter’s long political life including the issue of nuclear non-proliferation, the Carter Doctrine, the Camp David Accords of 1978, and Carter’s opposition to Palestinian statehood. Read Stephen Zunes’s most recent article about Carter’s relationship to Israel in the Progressive.

Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he served as founding director of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He is currently serving as 2024 Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Research Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Featured image: Portrait of Jimmy Carter by Ansel Adams (1979) via Wikimedia Commons.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Jimmy Carter’s Legacy with Stephen Zunes appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Ver todos los episodios